Warning: Fake 5-star reviews on Angi are tanking my referral program

Dropped $500 on Angi leads last month for some basic lawn installs and half the 'reviews' showing up are from randos praising the work before I even started. It's screwing my referrals from real clients who see the profile and think we're some fly-by-night outfit using Husqvarna mowers. PSA to any landscapers: ditch that crap before it kills your rep.

angi and thumbtack are the same scam, they flood profiles with bot reviews to hook you then charge an arm and leg for leads that suck.

switch to nextdoor, their reviews are more organic and you can build referrals off actual neighbors.

man i feel you, been there with my own yard work referrals getting overshadowed by this online noise.

had a client bail after seeing mixed reviews, turns out half were planted. pissed me off big time.

same here bro, the fake stuff makes legit landscapers look shady and kills word of mouth.

customer thought my flower bed installs were amateur because of some dummy 5-star spam on my profile, hilarious in a bad way.

watched mike andes on tiktok talk about this, he says stick to local fb groups for real referrals.

how do you even report the fake ones without them ignoring you?

i commiserate, lost a solid mulching contract because the review algo favored the spam over my real pics.

don't fall for it, i saw a guy in the landscaping professionals fb group get sued over fake review backlash.

ugh, this crap has everyone in the biz raging, time to boycott these platforms altogether.

these lead sites are ruining small ops, forcing us to chase ghosts instead of real lawn jobs.

total BS, my referrals dried up after angi flooded my profile with nonsense.

frustrated as hell, spent weeks rebuilding trust after one bad fake review wave.

yeah i get it, the fake positives make real clients suspicious and kill the referral chain.

try service fusion for tracking real referrals, skips the review site headaches entirely.

asked this on r/landscaping and folks said same, stick to google my business for honest rep building.